An amazing variety of trees species can be found along Chiang Mais moat around the former city walls and fortifications, contributing to the popularity of its banks as picnic site among the locals and also making its botanical exploration worthwhile.

For thousands of years the peoples of Southern Asia and Melanasia were inveterate chewers of betel, giving rise to the claim that it was the most widely used narcotic in human history. Despite the rapid decline since the 19th century, millions still enjoy their home-grown drug.

Species of Colubrid snakes in the genera Liopeltis (ring necks) and Lycodon (wolf snakes) that occur in northern Thailand, such as Lycodon capucinus, Lycodon fasciatus, Lycodon laoensis and Lycodon subcinctus

About 12 species of snakes in the Colubrid genera Oligodon, Oreocryptophis and Orthriophis occur in northern Thailand, such as the Banded Kukri Snake (Oligodon fasciolatus), the Red Mountain racer (Oreocryptophis porphyracea) and the Cave Racer (Orthriophis taeniurus).

Descriptions and pictures of the Colubrid snakes Plagiopholis nuchalis, the sand snake Psammophis indochinensis, the rat snakes Ptyas carinata, P. korros, P. mucosa and P. nigromarginata and the blackhead Sibynophis collaris which have been recorded in northern Thailand

A 164-km-long asphalt road, Highway 1090, links the town of Mae Sot with Umphang, in a remote corner of Tak Province, cutting through the scenic mountains near the Burmese border, rich in natural attractions.

Male snakes have a paired copulatory organ, the hemipenes, in the base of the tail. During intercourse only one of the everted hemipenes is inserted into the female cloaca. In many species the hemipenis is forked or covered with spines.

Every year, for seven days in May or June, Chiang Mai’s Inthakhin Pillar on Wat Chedi Luang, in the heart of the walled city, is at the centre of ceremonies that go back to the city’s foundation in 1296.

During his long reign (1868-1910) King Chulalongkorn introduced many modern institutions. His reforms prevented Thailand’s colonization by foreign powers. The former king’s veneration soared in the 1980s.

At least four species of the wolf snake genus Lycodon occur in northern Thailand. These rather small, harmless animals are common and widespread in the region. Some of them may be confused with deadly kraits.

The mountainous Phu Hin Rong Kla National Park, situated where Thailand’s northern, northeastern and central regions meet, and once the battlefield of a grim civil war, features odd rock formations and rare flowering plants.

In the 1950s anthropologist John Embree characterized Thai people as individualists and Thailand as a loosely-structured society. These concepts were popular until into the 1980s. In embryonic form they were already formulated in a little article on the sport takraw dating from 1948, Insights from this sport and its possibly hidden links with American anthropology in Thailand.

Thousands of species of wild fungi are known in Thailand, while many species of mushrooms are cultivated and for sale in markets. During the rainy season, many Thai collect and sell a variety of wild mushrooms from the forest.

This story focuses on the episodes of the ‘lotus pond’ and the ‘delay of Matsi’ in the Buddha’s birth story Vessantara Jataka and is illustrated with many pictures of murals taken in northern Thai temples.

The family Viperidae consists of vipers and pit-vipers. About 10 species occur in northern Thailand. such as the dangerous Siamese Russel’s Viper and Malayan Pit-viper, and the green pit-vipers of the genus Trimeresurus.

Only one species from the family of Xenodermatid snakes occurs in northern Thailand, Parafimbrios lao. This snake has only been reported from evergreen mountain forest at high elevation (>1300 m) in Nan Province.